Integrating biodiversity in modern agricultural practice

Abstract

Cultural landscapes-areas that have been modified to varying degrees by human activity, now dominate most of the earth's land surface, and surprisingly high levels of biodiversity are often found in areas devoted to crop production and livestock raising, particularly in "traditional" farming areas. Some of that biodiversity is directly useful to improving agricultural productivity, such as traditional varieties of crops with disease resistance genes and wild or weedy populations of crops that are tapped by breeders for other useful traits. In order to improve agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, biodiversity must therefore be better managed in transformed habitats. This paper not only outlines measures that can be adopted to reduce off-site impacts of agriculture on biodiversity but also pinpoints policy options to help conserve and better utilize agro-biodiversity-plant and animals, including beneficial insects and other organisms, that are essential for agriculture. In this study will be highlight how best practices are being applied in many different situations and how such practices can alter the agrobiodiversity picture at farm and landscape level.